“The club is not healthy”
Bundesliga club facing second coach dismissal of the season?
March 2, 2026 – 8:43 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
After the 4-0 defeat in Stuttgart and the fall into a relegation zone, deep-seated problems have become apparent at VfL Wolfsburg. Now a former successful coach could return.
After the disastrous defeat at VfB Stuttgart (0:4), VfL Wolfsburg is in a deep crisis that goes far beyond their sporting misery. “The club is not healthy,” midfielder Yannick Gerhardt revealed internal problems after the game. While coach Daniel Bauer also complains about structural deficits, club officials discussed the future of the coach, who was only hired in November, on Monday.
Bauer spoke to DAZN about fundamental problems: “The fact is that we have to change a lot of structures, that the atmosphere and culture within the club is currently not suitable for the Bundesliga. That we have to get a different mindset into the entire structure.”
Sports director Peter Christiansen admitted last week that the problems were not just the coach’s fault. “We can’t say that things are up to Daniel Bauer. It’s the whole club,” said the manager.
VfL’s sporting record is alarming: in 14 games under Bauer, the team suffered eight defeats. Loud “kicker” information There are “serious considerations” about changing the coach for the second time this season. Ex-coach Dieter Hecking, who worked in Wolfsburg from 2013 to 2016 and won the DFB Cup and Supercup with the club, is considered his successor. Hecking was most recently under contract with VfL Bochum, but was released in September 2025 after a disappointing start with just one win from five games.
Gerhardt, who has been under contract with VfL for ten years, painted a bleak picture: “It looks very bad. The table doesn’t lie right now. The trend is overwhelming. This discrepancy between expectations and reality is far too big.” The midfielder demanded: “We don’t need to talk about potential anymore. We have to find the players who can somehow get it over the line. We have the ambition to be Bundesliga players, we have to show that.”
